Bloodborne & The Old Hunters Collector’s Edition Guides

Future Press gone behind the scenes with Bloodborne's creators to unearth every secret hidden within the mysterious city of Yharnam. Your hunt through the streets of Yharnam will be your most exciting and rewarding journey yet, and the road will be hard. But fear not! These guides are your key to mastering the merciless challenges and navigating the darkest depths of the city. [More]

Blood Gems - Basics

Blood Gems

Basic Information

In order to attach gems to your weapons, you'll need three things. First, you'll need a gem. Second, you'll need a weapon that can equip a gem; this means you'll need to upgrade your weapon to unlock gem slots. Finally, you'll need the Blood Gem Workshop Tool. It can be obtained just before entering Oedon Chapel. With those elements in place, you can attach gems to your weapon by approaching the workbench in the Hunter's Dream and selecting "Blood Gem Fortification."

Gem Shapes and Alternate Weapons

Right-hand weapons can have up to three gem slots, and some left-hand weapons have one slot. There are different slot shapes, though; not every gem will fit every slot. The slot types are: Radial, Triangular, Waning, and Circle. Your gem's shape needs to match the slot you want to use it in. If you find a really great gem but the shape doesn't properly match your weapon, don't give up hope. There are actually two alternate versions of every right-hand weapon - the Lost and Uncanny versions. They're identical to normal weapons except that they have different slot configurations. These alternate weapons can be found in Chalice Dungeons. There is also an exceedingly rare fifth type of gem shape - Droplet gems. These are "almighty" gems; they can fit in any type of gem slot!

Unique Gems

Most Blood Gems are randomly generated when they appear, but there are some preset gems, and even a rare few that you create by using unique items you may acquire. These few unique gems are covered here.

This gem is acquired by defeating Vicar Amelia and then using the Gold Pendant she drops. It's a Radial gem that grants a decent boost to attack strength against beasts. The Saw Cleaver and Saw Spear are good candidates for fortifying with this gem, because they both have Radial slots and their serrated damage bonus already makes them your ideal beast-killers.

You can obtain this gem by giving the Doll the Small Hair Ornament and then talking to her. She'll give you the Tear Stone, which produces this gem when you use it. It's a very useful gem, and worth equipping to your sidearm if it has a gem slot, at least until late in the game when you begin to find powerful Circle-shaped Blood Gems.

This unique, Droplet-shaped Blood Gem is acquired by using the Red Brooch, which you can find on a woman's corpse in the Tomb of Oedon. It raises your physical attack by 2.7% and boosts rally potential by 1.8%. This makes it similar to a Lethal gem, and not a very strong one at that, but it still highly useful in the first half of the game.

Positive Effects and Cursed Gems

Gems are, to a certain extent, random. Behind the scenes, each gem has a budget of points. Every positive effect that is added to a gem takes points from the budget, and every negative effect adds points back. What this means is that gems with negative effects can also have stronger positive effects. These are known as "Cursed" gems; they're powerful but have a downside. For example, let's consider a gem with a rating of 10 with an Odd Bloodtinge effect. Let's say the effect is "Blood Attack + 50." If it also had a negative Kinhunter effect of "Attack versus beasts down by 8.1 %," the positive Odd Bloodtinge could go higher; it might be something like "Blood Attack +62.6." If you put that gem on a Hunter Pistol, its attacks would be more powerful in general, but it would do less damage against beasts.

The key point to remember is that Cursed gems have negative effects and often have stronger positive effects to compensate. If you see something like a Cursed Dense effect (weapon durability down), it might actually be a blessing in disguise! The other important point is that not all gems are created equal. For example, a 19-rated Adept (Blunt) gem won't help you at all if you're using a Blade of Mercy, as it has no blunt attacks. Think carefully about which gems you choose, and don't hesitate to test them out on a variety of enemies!

Ratings

Gems can have up to three effects, and each gem has a rating that determines the strength of its effects. Higher-rated gems are stronger than lower-rated gems. The weakest gems have a rating of one, and the strongest gems have a rating of 20. You'll pick up some gems in the course of the main game, but if you want the most powerful gems you'll need to spend time in the Chalice Dungeons. Chalice Dungeons with a high Ritual Level are difficult, but they also have the best gems.

Gem Ratings by Ritual Level

Gem Rating

Ritual Level 1

Ritual Level 2

Ritual Level 3

Ritual Level 4

Ritual Level 5

20

-

-

-

-

Chalice Boss

Chalice Boss: These gems drop from the overall dungeon boss.

Floor Boss: These gems drop from a boss on the first two floors of the dungeon.

Treasure: These gems are found as treasure at the end of side areas within the dungeon.

Normal Foes: These gems drop from non-boss enemies.

19

-

-

-

-

Floor Boss

18

-

-

-

-

Treasure

17

-

-

-

-

Normal Foes

16

-

-

-

Chalice Boss

Normal Foes

15

-

-

-

Floor Boss

Normal Foes

14

-

-

-

Treasure

-

13

-

-

-

Normal Foes

-

12

-

-

Chalice Boss

Normal Foes

-

11

-

-

Floor Boss

Normal Foes

-

10

-

Chalice Boss

Treasure

-

-

9

-

Floor Boss

Normal Foes

-

-

8

Chalice Boss

Treasure

Normal Foes

-

-

7

Floor Boss

Normal Foes

Normal Foes

-

-

6

Treasure

Normal Foes

-

-

-

5

Normal Foes

Normal Foes

-

-

-

4

Normal Foes

-

-

-

-

3

Normal Foes

-

-

-

-

2

-

-

-

-

-

1

-

-

-

-

-

Gem Effect Stacking

You can equip the same effect on a weapon multiple times, and the effects will stack. In fact, this is often the best way to use gems. You can make a weapon for use against beasts that stacks the Hunter effect multiple times, for example. You might be tempted to stack the gem effects of your left- and right- hand weapons, but this won't work in most cases. Effects generally only apply to the weapon you put them on rather than your character overall; an Odd Bloodtinge effect on your Saw Cleaver won't increase the damage of your Hunter Pistol, even if you hold them at the same time.

This even applies to effects like Fool that increase your damage at full HP. One major exception is the Pulsing effect that enables passive HP regeneration; it stacks! This makes it an amazing effect for a left-hand weapon...

Buffable and Non-buffable Weapons

There are two types of weapons in Bloodborne: weapons that can be buffed (strengthened) with Fire Paper, Bolt Paper, or Empty Phantasm Shell, and those that cannot. Usually, weapons that can be buffed only deal physical damage; the lone exception is the Reiterpallasch. Weapons that cannot be buffed always have more than one damage type.

This is an important distinction because some gems work differently depending on the type of weapon in which they are placed. Refer to the following lists when you need a reminder about which category a weapon is in: